The Injured waste no time while others break records

Maria Sharapova is still injured and has withdrawn from the next three of the bigger events in Italy and France, however she is everywhere, from magazines to billboards to tv channels. Just this past week she filmed a segment for ESPN's primetime news magazine, E:60. She will be appearing with Matt Stafford, the UGA quarterback who is up for top pick in this weekend's NFL Draft. She is to give him a makeover for the segment. Watch the preview.


Vera Zvonareva, who has been on a roll recently, is also out for the next 12 weeks or so due to an ankle injury. However, she too is making progress on the business side of things by signing with IMG marketing and representation.

The weeks all Russian final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix ended in a win for Svetlana Kuznetsova over the No.1 Dinara Safina 6-4 6-3. Kuznetsova overcame herself as she has lost the last six finals she has been in, and this is her first title since August of '07.

Another injury stricken woman, is 21 yr old Golovin, who has dropped from 12 to 1228 in the world due to back problems. First the Sports Illustrated shoot, now she has agreed to commentate the French Open this year for the French television broadcasting.

On the men's side, Hewitt hasn't had as much success as in the past, but he is steadily breaking records. Now in Germany at the BMW Open, he has reached his 500th career victory. Hewitt now has a 500-170 career record, which includes two major titles. The only two other active players with more than 500 wins are Roger Federer with 638 and Carlos Moya with 573. That is impressive!

David Nalbandian has fought as long as he could his biggest rival, his hip injury. After a year of pain and suffering he decided to succumb to surgery second week of May and miss the French Open. This won't be an easy comeback for the world's top 10.

Cool Technique Video Links

Ana Ivanovic's forehand in skeletal graphics

Andy Murray's volley's slow motion

Or if you want to look up some OTHER VIDEOS

Tennis Racquets For Kids Launches Press Release

Tennis Racquets for Kids- A non-profit organization dedicated to the distribution of donated tennis racquets to underprivileged children.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dr. Guy Mintz
Tennis Racquets For Kids
racquetsforkids@optonline.net

Do you have a collection of previously used tennis racquets that are collecting dust in your garage? Do you know of a child or group of children that have been unable to participate in the game of tennis due to economic restraints?

5/8/09 - Greenvale, NY - Tennis Racquets for Kids Inc. announces its non-profit organization dedicated to the distribution of previously owned tennis racquets to children who might otherwise be excluded from playing tennis due to financial constraints.

“Over the past few years we have switched the racquets we play with several times. After speaking with some of our friends we realized that we were not alone. We knew that we stumbled upon an opportunity to help other children get involved in the sport we were fortunate enough to be a part of” says Zachary Mintz, Co-Founder of Tennis Racquets for Kids.

“Tennis has enhanced our lives enormously, and we want to spread our love of the game to all children. By distributing new and used racquets from other players and sponsors, we will be helping other children realize their dreams of playing tennis.” says Paige Mintz, Co-Founder of Tennis Racquets for Kids.

The racquets come in all sizes, frames and grips. Children or organizations that qualify to receive donated racquets will fill out a form to ensure they are fitted for the right size racquet.

Donation box locations can be found on the Tennis Racquets for Kids website or arrangements can be made to ship the racquets directly to Tennis Racquets for Kids storage facility.

Tennis Racquets for Kids will reach out to local and national tennis organizations, governing bodies, tournament sponsors, schools, coaches and other entities to help facilitate the distribution of the donated racquets, and help make sure they get into the right hands.

The current economic crisis coupled with the rising obesity rates highlights the importance of charities that provide children of all economic levels with the tools to stay physically active.

About Tennis Racquets For Kids
Tennis Racquets for Kids Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to the distribution of donated tennis racquets to individual children, or to organizations that represent children, in need of such racquets. Previously owned tennis racquets, which are often discarded, represent an exciting opportunity for children who might otherwise be excluded from playing tennis, due to economic restraints. The “recycling” of these racquets also contributes to the preservation of the environment

A website developed for kids by kids. Donate for the Love of the Game!

To learn more, visit website http://www.tennisracquetsforkids.com/ or check out the blog http://www.tennisracquetsforkids.blogspot.com/
See Full Press Release:

French Open Preview

One of the 4 most coveted trophies in the tennis world; a chance to play beautifully crafted artistic tennis on red clay; to pound shots with topspin and slide with grace or lack thereof side to side - the French Open is back for 2009! Paris is welcoming its premiere tennis stars, everyone is hopeful, the qualifying is underway, who isn't happy at the beginning of a tournament before the claws come out.

I am going to highlight some of my predictions for the final eight in red.

Here is a copy and pasted version of the first round match-ups:

Men

Rafael Nadal (1), Spain, vs. q-Marcos Daniel, Brazil

Igor Kunitsyn, Russia, vs. Teimuraz Gabashvili, Russia

Denis Gremelmayr, Germany, vs. Andrey Golubev, Kazakhstan

Lleyton Hewitt, Australia, vs. Ivo Karlovic (26), Croatia

Robin Soderling (23), Sweden, vs. Kevin Kim, United States

Denis Istomin, Uzbekistan, vs. q-Santiago Giraldo, Colombia

q-Ilja Bozoljac, Serbia, vs. Nicolas Kiefer, Germany

Frederico Gil, Portugal, vs. David Ferrer (14), Spain

Nikolay Davydenko (10), Russia, vs. Stefan Koubek, Austria

Diego Junquiera, Argentina, vs. Paul Capdeville, Chile

Nicolas Massu, Chile, vs. Daniel Koellerer, Austria

Nicolas Devilder, France, vs. Stanislas Wawrinka (17), Switzerland

Nicolas Almagro (31), Spain, vs. Agustin Calleri, Argentina

Ernests Gulbis, Latvia, vs. Sam Querrey, United States

q-Peter Polonsky, Canada, vs. Philipp Petzschner, Germany

Florent Serra, France, vs. Fernando Verdasco (8), Spain

Andy Murray (3), Britain, vs. Juan Ignacio Chela, Argentina

Mischa Zverev, Germany, vs. Potito Starace, Italy

Janko Tipsarevic, Serbia, vs. Albert Montanes, Spain

q-Franco Ferreiro, Brazil, vs. Feliciano Lopez (28), Spain

Radek Stepanek (18), Czech Republic, vs. wc-Gaston Gaudio, Argentina

Yen-Hsun Lu, Taiwan, vs. ll-Mathieu Montcourt, France

Dudi Sela, Israel, vs. q-Jean-Rene Lisnard, Monaco

Jan Hernych, Czech Republic, vs. Marin Cilic (13), Croatia

Fernando Gonzalez (12), Chile, vs. q-Jiri Vanek, Czech Republic

q-Rui Machado, Portugal, vs. Kristof Vliegen, Belgium

Marcel Granollers, Spain, vs. wc-Josselin Ouanna, France

wc-Alexandre Sidorenko, France, vs. Marat Safin (20), Russia

Victor Hanescu (30), Romania, vs. Stever Darcis, Belgium

Mikhail Youzhny, Russia, vs. Gilles Muller, Luxembourg

q-Daniel Brands, Germany, vs. Robert Kendrick, United States

Wayne Odesnik, United States, vs. Gilles Simon (7), France

Juan Martin del Potro (5), Argentina, vs. Michael Llodra, France

Viktor Troicki, Serbia, vs. q-Lukasz Kubot, Poland

Thomaz Bellucci, Brazil, vs. Martin Vassallo Arguello, Argentina

q-Fabio Fognini, Italy, vs. Igor Andreev (25), Russia

Dmitry Tursunov (21), Russia, vs. Arnaud Clement, France

Fabrice Santoro, France, vs. Christophe Rochus, Belgium

Marcos Baghdatis, Cyprus, vs. Juan Monaco, Argentina

Julien Benneteau, France, vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (9), France

Tommy Robredo (16), Spain, vs. wc-Adrian Mannarino, France

Evgeny Korolev, Russia, vs. Daniel Gimeno Traver, Spain

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Spain, vs. Andreas Seppi, Italy

Maximo Gonzalez, Argentina, vs. Mardy Fish (22), United States

Philipp Kohlschreiber (29), Germany, vs. wc-Bernard Tomic, Australia

Juan Carlos Ferrero, Spain, vs. Ivan Ljubicic, Croatia

Brian Dabul, Argentina, vs. q-Sergiy Stakhovsky, Ukraine

Nicolas Lapentti, Ecuador, vs. Novak Djokovic (4), Serbia

Andy Roddick (6), United States, vs. wc-Romain Jouan, France

Oscar Hernandez, Spain, vs. Ivo Minar, Czech Republic

Ivan Navarro, Spain, vs. Andreas Beck, Germany

Marc Gicquel, France, vs. Rainer Schuettler (27), Germany

Jurgen Melzer (24), Austria, vs. Sergio Roitman, Argentina

wc-Guillaume Rufin, France, vs. Eduardo Schwank, Argentina

q-Victor Crivoi, Romania, vs. q-Simon Greul, Germany

Bobby Reynolds, United States, vs. Gael Monfils (11), France

James Blake (15), United States, vs. q-Leonardo Mayer, Argentina

Andrei Pavel, Romania, vs. Tommy Haas, Germany

Bjorn Phau, Germany, vs. Jeremy Chardy, France

Simone Bolelli, Italy, Tomas Berdych (19), Czech Republic

Paul-Henri Mathieu (32), France, vs. wc-Laurent Recouderc, France

Robby Ginepri, United States, vs. Pablo Andujar, Spain

Jose Acasuso, Argentina, vs. q-Santiago Ventura, Spain

Alberto Martin, Spain, vs. Roger Federer (2), Switzerland

Women

Dinara Safina (1), Russia, vs. Anne Keothavong, Britain

q-Vitalia Diatchenko, Russia, vs. Mathilde Johansson, France

Nuria Llagostera Vives, Spain, vs. Julie Coin, France

Ioana Raluca Olaru, Romania, vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (27), Russia

Alisa Kleybanova (23), Russia vs. q-Polona Hercog, Slovenia

Ai Sugiyama, Japan, vs. Aravane Rezai, France

q-Michelle Larcher de Brito, Portugal, vs. Melanie South, Britain

Stephanie Cohen-Aloro, France, vs. Zheng Jie (15), China

Victoria Azarenka (9), Belarus, vs. Roberta Vinci, Italy

Maria-Emilia Salerni, Argentina, vs. Kristina Barrois, Germany

q-Yvonne Meusburger, Austria, vs. Lucie Hradecka, Czech Republic

Edina Gallovits, Romania, vs. Carla Suarez Navarro (22), Spain

Iveta Benesova (32), Czech Republic, vs. Julia Goerges, Germany

Varvara Lepchenko, United States, vs. Alla Kudryavtseva, Russia

Tamarine Tanasugarn, Thailand, vs. Camille Pin, France

Sara Errani, Italy, vs. Ana Ivanovic (8), Serbia

Venus Williams (3), United States, vs. Bethanie Mattek-Sands, United States

Lucie Safarova, Czech Republic, vs. Sabine Lisicki, Germany

Elena Vesnina, Russia, vs. Severine Bremond Beltrame, France

q-Corinna Dentoni, Italy, vs. Agnes Szavay (29), Hungary

Dominika Cibulkova (20), Slovakia, vs. Alona Bondarenko, Ukraine

Stephanie Foretz, France, vs. Kirsten Flipkens, Belgium

Tamira Paszek, Austria, vs. Gisela Dulko, Argentina

Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Germany, vs. Amelie Mauresmo (16), France

Nadia Petrova (11), Russia, vs. wc-Lauren Embree, United States

Anastasiya Yakimova, Belarus, vs. Maria Sharapova, Russia

wc-Olivia Sanchez, France, vs. q-Arantxa Rus, Netherlands

q-Yaroslava Shvedova, Kazakhstan, vs. Kaia Kanepi (19), Estonia

Li Na (25), China, vs. Marta Domachowska, Poland

wc-Emilie Loit, France, vs. Timea Bacsinszky, Switzerland

wc-Irena Pavlovic, France, vs. Akgul Amanmuradova, Uzbekistan

Olga Govortsova, Belarus, vs. Vera Zvonareva (6), Russia

Jelena Jankovic (5), Serbia, vs. Petra Cetkovska, Czech Republic

Magdalena Rybarikova, Slovakia, vs. wc-Kristina Mladenovic, France

Jarmila Groth, Australia, vs. wc-Kinnie Laisne, France

ll-Mariana Duque Marino, Colombia, vs. Anna Chakvetadze (26), Russia

Alize Cornet (21), France, vs. Maret Ani, Estonia

q-Carly Gullickson, United States, vs. Sorana Cirstea, Romania

Tsvetana Pironkova, Bulgaria, vs. Jill Craybas, United States

Vera Dushevina, Russia, vs. Caroline Wozniacki (10), Denmark

Marion Bartoli (13), France, vs. Pauline Parmentier, France

Tathiana Garbin, Italy, vs. Ayumi Morita, Japan

Virginie Razzano, France, vs. Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakia

Ekaterina Makarova, Russia, vs. Anabel Medina Garrigues (18), Spain

Samantha Stosur (30), Australia, vs. Francesca Schiavone, Italy

Yanina Wickmayer, Belgium, vs. Urszula Radwanska, Poland

Jelena Dokic, Australia, vs. Karolina Sprem, Croatia

q-Chanelle Scheepers, South Africa, vs. Elena Dementieva (4), Russia

Svetlana Kuznetsova (7), Russia, vs. wc-Claire Feuerstein, France

Galina Voskoboeva, Kazakhstan, vs. Sania Mirza, India

q-Anastasija Sevastova, Latvia, vs. Melinda Czink, Hungary

Nathalie Dechy, France, vs. Sybille Bammer (28), Austria

Patty Schnyder (17), Switzerland, vs. Kateryna Bondarenko, Ukraine

wc-Olivia Rogowska, Australia, vs. Maria Kirilenko, Russia

Patricia Mayr, Austria, vs. Mariya Koryttseva, Ukraine

Rossana de Los Rios, Paraguay, vs. Agnieszka Radwanska (12), Poland

Flavia Pennetta (14), Italy, vs. Alexa Glatch, United States

Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, Czech Republic, vs. Lourdes Dominguez Lino, Spain

Mara Santangelo, Italy, vs. q-Petra Martic, Croatia

Monica Niculescu, Romania, vs. Aleksandra Wozniak (24), Canada

Peng Shuai (31), China, vs. Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Spain

Viktoriya Kutuzova, Ukraine, vs. q-Zuzana Ondraskova, Czech Republic

Virginia Ruano Pascual, Spain, vs. Nicole Vaidisova, Czech Republic

Klara Zakopalova, Czech Republic, vs. Serena Williams (2), United States

Check out the official site: http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/index.html

Don't forget to watch some of this amazing tennis starting Sunday, May 24th, on tv, in the US it will be on Espn2, The Tennis Channel, NBC. http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/about/tvschedule.html

or stream it live on the many websites that offer that to you! I'll get some links up later.

AS THE FRENCH SAY IT: BONNE CHANCE!!!!!!!

Sore muscles means time to work out again!

You felt enthusiastic, you went out and gave it your best, you ran down every ball, you played 5 sets even though you haven't played even one consecutive set in a year. Next morning, you can't get out of bed.

There are two ways to look at sore muscles. You can be proud of your workout gone well and do it again even more intensely tomorrow, or you can curse the pain and swear to never again exercise as much at once. Sometimes muscles hurt that you didn't know you had, which is probably true in that they are muscles you didn't use. What muscle soreness really means is that your muscles are getting stronger. Of course pain should be moderate, otherwise you just may have injured yourself! "Mild soreness just a natural outcome of any kind of physical activity," says Rick Sharp, professor of exercise physiology at Iowa State University in Ames. "And they're most prevalent in beginning stages of a program."

Usually you feel the onset of pain in a day or two after your activity. Exercise physiologists call this delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). DOMS is a common result of exercise that stresses the muscle tissue beyond what it is used to, like contracting while lengthening (bicep curls) or performing in an eccentric way (running downhill). The muscle tears microscopically and the inflammation that accompanies it, is what hurts.

There is no antidote to muscle soreness, everyone hurts when they subject themselves to exercises they haven't regularly done. Just imagine how body builders must feel, not even speaking of someone who has never exercised before! This is a stage the muscles have to go through in order to adapt and be ready for a repeat of that type of exercise.

What can you do if you are in so much pain you can't even raise an arm to brush your teeth? Ice is one. Rest is another. Advil will take the inflammation away. Massage will relax you're bunched up muscles. Heat in the form of those Thermacare bandages at CVS feels nice and so does stretching. The most effective thing to prevent soreness is to do more exercise after your given routine. Stretch out to cool down, jog it off or go for a swim. This will ease the pain. Of course you also don't want all that hard work to go to waste, so perhaps work out a different muscle group for a week or so and then return to the sore group. This will keep your muscles strengthening and build on your results.

Most importantly don't be discouraged through this pain. Treat yourself to a massage and get back out there. Be proud!

Source

Happy Mother's Day!

Tennisracquetsforkids would like to wish all the Moms a very happy day! Hopefully all the tennis moms will get to enjoy another year of lessons, tournaments, wins, losses, cheers, smiles, tears, crazy schedules and love through tennis and their kids!

Watch this link for what some of the top WTA stars had to say about their mothers.

Swinging at the net like Tarzan

Yes, this is a problem that all tennis players go through learning to volley, we all did it, we were wild at the net and untamed, we swung away at the ball, losing control in the way we setup, the way we made contact and the way we followed through. The ball would hit the fence, or the bottom of the net, or shank. It was an erratic stroke. How did we fix it? For one, you have to have the strength to hold your racquet head up and understand that the power comes from using the pace of the incoming shot and using your legs to send it back. Power can be created by swinging, sure, but only at the expense of control. There are high volleys that border on being an overhead that you have to swing at because its a physically tough shot to create pace on, but on regular volleys, try to watch yourself, and think compact swing and good footwork at all times. I always say that you need to pretend like there is a wall behind your back and that you are standing waist high in the middle of a cutout at the center of the table, you cannot drop the racquet head below the table. Here is a great way to work on this, but you will need props and a feeder.

1. Line your back flat against a wall
2. Place an object (ie. bench with a back, garbage bin) a foot to your right and two feet infront of you, that is at the height of your belly button, not any lower or higher.
3. Ask someone to feed you volleys right into your racquet.
4. You will be unable to swing back for that forehand volley due to the wall/fence in the back.
5. You will be forced to volley forward but won't be able to go wild without hitting the object in front and damaging your frame.
6. Ideally, you will want to make contact before the object and follow through over it and down. The 2 feet infront will allow you to step into it as well.
7. With every few volleys or so, move the object forward and practice moving up to it.
8. Do the same with the backhand swing.
9. In no time will you grasp the compact notion of the swing and have a clear picture of what a volley looks like in your mind.

Good luck!

Newsday: After Three Years in France, Tennis Phenom's Family Returns to USA

Here is a link to the article on Jan Silva, the tennis prodigy much talked about. It talks about the family sacrificing everything to move to an Academy in Spain for then 4 year old Jan, and now moving back to Sacramento, also to an academy. Interesting food for thought: Are kids under the age of 10 better off at academies, public schools, private schools? How do the parents deal with the pressure of their one child being treated so differently than their other two. Financially, is it possible to give your kids wholly into a sport of their choice without outside help?

Here is an old youtube link to Jan Silva.